The Long Walk Home

"A story of an incredible friendship."

The Long Walk Home is an American dramatic film that chronicles the trials of a black woman and her employer during the earliest days of the Civil Rights Movement. The movie was based on a screenplay written by John Cork during his days at the University of Southern California. The Long Walk Home is narrated by Mary Steenburgen, who portrays an older version of the daughter in the film as she retells the story to present-day audiences.

The year is 1955, and things are tense in Montgomery, Alabama. After Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to go to the back of a city transit bus, a bus boycott is initiated by civil rights leaders in the city. This affects many African-American workers, including Odessa Cotter (Whoopi Goldberg), a maid to well-to-do white woman Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek) and her young daughter Mary Catherine.

Since Odessa can't take the bus, the only option for her is to make a long walk to and from work, even if it means being exhausted throughout the day. Eventually, Miriam decides to give Odessa a ride to work a few times a week in order for her to be on time and alleviate the conditions that come from her long walk. Though this works for a while, other white citizens of Montgomery, her husband (Dwight Schultz) among them, begin to question Miriam's intentions.

Miriam, deciding to go with her heart rather than what others think, starts a carpool with other women to drive their household workers to work. Deciding to fight against the oppression of Odessa and the other African-American workers in town, Miriam provides a little emancipation for her, Odessa, and the life of her future daughter.

A Long Walk Home is produced by Stuart Benjamin and Taylor Hackford and directed by Richard Pearce. The movie was distributed by Miramax Films and premiered in December of 1990.